Button selecting and delivery apparatus



April 26, 1955 B. BRONFMAN BUTTON SELECTING AND DELIVERY APPARATUS 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed July 1, 1955 INVENTOR Be n Bronfmun jomin 7W ATTORNE April 1955 B. BRONFMAN 2,707,065

BUTTON SELECTING AND DELIVERY APPARATUS Filed July 1, 1955 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTQR Benjamin Bronfmun BY I 0 l (I s2 1 [Mg/r Q ATTORNEY United States Patent BUTTON SELECTING AND DELIVERY APPARATUS Benjamin Bronfman, Rockville Centre, N. Y.

Application July 1, 1953, Serial No. 365,489

1 Claim. (Cl. 221-165) This invention relates to a button feeding apparatus and more particularly to an apparatus for the selective feeding of shank buttons from a hopper containing a reservoir of buttons.

In the garment industries it was for a long time the usage of the industry to perform by hand most of the operations involved in the assembly of garments This was true, in spite of the existing state of mechanization, because many of the operations could best be performed by hand, and in many instances could only be performed in this manner. But beginning with the sewing machine, workers in this field set out to supplant the comparatively inefficient and tedious hand operations so far as possible with machines. The apparatus here disclosed marks one step in this development.

When manual operating was the vogue buttons having hanks were picked from a container by a Worker, placed in position, then sewed into place by hand orby machine. It is contemplated that the present device will provide a means whereby shank buttons will be automatically picked out of a container holding a large supply of buttons, as a hopper, then fed from the container to another device which positions the buttons for the actual afliXation, as is disclosed, for example, in my copending application, Serial Number 348,921, filed April 15, 1953 and now abandoned. This may be said to constitute the primary object of this invention.

Another object is to eliminate the necessity for atl manual operations in the feeding of shank buttons once a batch of such buttons has been dumped into the hopper.

Still another object is to provide an apparatus of the nature described wherein adjustment is possible so that buttons of various size may be accommodated. Furthermore, because the head of the button plays no part in the sorting of buttons for delivery, the particular configuration of the head may be of any shape without interfering with the operation of the apparatus.

It is still another object to provide means wherein buttons made of material which is breakable, as for example glass or a brittle plastic, may be safely handled with little danger that such breakage will occur. It is desirable also that in addition to avoiding actual breakage, the mode of operation be such that no abrasion or marring of the surfaces of buttons will occur. Since the buttons involved will be decorative in the garments to which they are attached as well as functional in furnishing a means of closure, their attractive appearance must not be impaired. This too is an object of the present invention.

A further object of this invention is to provide means for the continuous feeding of buttons from the container once they have been selected from the mass of buttons in the container.

It is a still further object to provide a mechanical system having a means for the selection of buttons which means, after such selection, is also capable of holding the buttons in position for delivery from the container.

A final object is to accomplish all of the foregoing in a manner which is higher etlicient, yet does not call for apparatus which is excessively expensive.

How these and many other objects are to be implemented will become apparent from a consideration of the accompanying drawings wherein:

Fig. 1 is a side view of the button selecting and delivery assembly:

2,707,065 Patented Apr. 26, 1955 Fig. 2 is a front view of the assembly with part of the hopper broken away to show the pickup arm;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged section at 33 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is an enlarged section at 4-4 of Fig. 2, and

Fig. 5 is an enlarged perspective view of the pickup arm.

Motive power for the various moving parts of the apparatus is supplied by motor 10. Hopper 11 serves as a reservoir for buttons having shank 11a and heads 11b which are individually fed therefrom by the means about to be described, which means is driven by the motor. Through a gear arrangement, the details of which are not shown, the motor 10 causes rotation of shaft 12. Sprocket 13 is fixedly mounted upon shaft 12 to rotate therewith and to furnish the drive for chain 14. Chain 14 also engages sprocket 15 causing its rotation in the direction shown by arrows in Fig. 1. Sprocket 15 is designed with a built out face having an arm 16 as may best be seen in Fig. 2. One end of link 17 is pinned to arm 16 at 18 in such manner that link 17 and arm 16 are freely rotatable with respect to each other. The other end of link 17 is rotatably pinned to face plate 21. The relative lengths of arm 16 and link 17 are such that upon rotation of sprocket 15 reciprocal rotary motion of face plate 21 will result.

From the motion of face plate 21 as above described it is desired to impart reciprocal rotary motion to pickup arm 22 which is located inside the hopper. This is accomplished by means of parts constituting a slip clutch which are associated with face plate 21, and with the face plate are disposed about shaft 23, as best seen in Fig. 3. One end of shaft 23 is screwed into wall 24 of the apparatus so that shaft 23 is fixed and nonrotatable. Bearing against wall 24 is one side of the nonrotating spacing washer 25. In contact with the other side of washer 25 is the non-rotating half 26 of a split raceway within which ball bearings 27 can move. The other half of the raceway, the rotating half, 30, is in contact with gear 31 and rotates therewith. Rotation of face plate 21 causes rotation of gear 31 because of the interposition therebetween of two discs of resilient material 32 and 33, between which is placed a separating plate 34. In contact with one face of the face plate 21 is the rotating half 35 of a second split raceway against which are placed for movement the ball bearings 36. Ball bearings 35 also bear against the non-rotating half 37 of the split raceway. Thus it will be seen. that all parts between the two sets of ball bearings are capable of rotation and will rotate with face plate 21 if they are held in sufliciently close contact.

Such contact is assured by the proper tightening down of nut 40 on spring 41 which bears directly on the nonrotating half 37 of one raceway. It will be observed further that by the arrangement just detailed a slip clutch has been provided whereby gear 31 will rotate with face plate 21 until its further rotation is obstructed, Whereafter slippage of gear 31 relative to plate 21 can occur. The necessity for a slip clutch will become apparent from a consideration of the contemplated mode of operation of pickup arm 22 within hopper 11.

The teeth of gear 31 mesh with those of gear 42, the last mentioned gear being mounted on a common shaft with pickup arm 22, so that the reciprocal rotary motion of gear 31 is transmitted to pickup arm 22. Thus arm 22 will sweep through the reservoir of shank buttons in hopper 11. Though the buttons in the hopper will be distributed therein with random orientation, when arm 22 sweeps through them, a certain number Will have their shanks so positioned that the shanks will fit into slot 43 in pickup arm 22. Buttons so picked up will be carried by the arm 22 through its cycle of revolution until the heads 11b of the buttons come into contact with conveyor belt 44. It is because the travel of pickup arm 22 must be arrested at this point while at the same time holding the button heads in sutficiently close contact with belt 44 that the slip clutch above described has been provided. It will be understood that because of the slippage, pickup arm 22 will hold buttons in contact with conveyor belt 44 for an appreciable length of time during which the belt will act upon the buttons and deliver them as will be described below. After this period has elapsed, arm 22 will be moved away from conveyor belt 44 and returned to its star-ting position from which it can begin a new cycle of sweeping through the hopper toward belt 44.

A second power takeoff directly from motor 10 drives conveyor belt 44. Rotation of spindle 45 in the direction of the arrow seen in Fig. l is caused by an arrangement of gears the details of which are not shown. The endless conveyor belt 44 at one side of hopper 11 is in contact with and passes around the flanged wheel 46. Belt 44 is also in contact with, and passes about, another wheel 47 at the other side of hopper 11, wheel 47 being shown in Fig. 4. Adjacent to this latter wheel is the adjustable cover plate 48 having notch 51 cut therein so that shanks 11a of buttons may fit therethrough. Plate 48 may be adjusted as to lateral position by means of slots 52 and bolts 53. This feature is present in order that buttons of various dimensions may be accommodated by the machine.

During the interval in which pickup arm 22 keeps buttons in contact with the conveyor belt 44, the belt will move buttons along slot 43 in pickup arm 22, toward notch 51 in cover plate 48. Upon passing through the notch 51, buttons are delivered into a chute consisting of guide plates 54 separated by a channel 55 into which the shanks of buttons will fit, the buttons then being carried to a sewing machine not shown for afiixation as desired.

The entire assembly which has been described is supported by members 56, 57 and 58, member 58 being fastened into base 60.

While I have described a particular embodiment of my invention, it is obvious that modifications may be made therein without departing from the spirit of my invention.

I claim:

A selecting and feeding apparatus for buttons having shanks comprising: a container for buttons; pickup means having a gear mounted thereon, said pickup means being capable of reciprocal rotary motion through said container for separating selected buttons from said buttons within said container, said pickup means having an arm with a longitudinal slot therein for engaging the shanks of those of said buttons having an orientation coincident with the orientation of said slot; delivery means for delivering said selected buttons from said container, said delivery means comprising a belt for contacting and imparting motion to said selected buttons, and driving means for said belt; means for causing reciprocal rotary motion of said pickup means, said means comprising a second gear for engaging said gear mounted on said pickup means, said second gear being actuated in reciprocal rotary motion by a face plate capable of having reciprocal rotary motion imparted thereto; and means whereby said pickup means is enabled to hold said selected buttons in position for an interval during which said selected buttons are capable of being delivered from said container, said last named means comprising resilient members interposed between said second gear and said face plate for permitting cessation of motion of said pickup means for a portion of each cycle of rotation of said face plate.

Pagan Aug. 24, 1926 Blair Feb. 8, 1944 

